13 replies to this topic

[applesandtea]

Hi, everyone. I haven't been to this forum in a long time because I was behind on Naruto for a year, but...I'm digressing. I'm not sure if this post is allowed, but I couldn't find a thread that I could post this question in so I decided to make a new one. Basically, I was wondering if anyone had any meta posts or essays on Sakura's character. The reason why I'm asking is because my friend recently told me, among other things, that he found Sakura to be so annoying and useless and that she was just a Tsunade wannabe (what?!?!?!)...and I wanted to respond because Sakura's probably one of my all time favorite characters in Naruto, but I'm extremely lazy so I didn't want to type up a lengthy response. Part of the reason is because I have finals coming up so I can't devote any time to writing a really awesome response and the other part is that I know there are probably good essays analyzing Sakura's character, explaining why she's so awesome, and debunking all those baseless things people say about her (i.e. "She's such a Sasuke fangirl. She's useless, weak, and such a b**** to Naruto" blahblahblah etc) in a concise matter with lots of supporting evidence from the manga so I don't really want to rehash something that's already been said and done.

In any case, I thought it'd be useful to put this thread up because while a lot of us love or like Sakura and can go on about her strengths as a character, I haven't really seen a really good post compiling all of these thoughts into one concise, well-written essay. A lot of the ones I've come across tend to be either way too TL;DR (aka 10 parts or more) that no one except a Sakura fan would want to read or are written in a really sloppy, disorganized fashion.

So yeah, does anyone have any links to really good essays they've read on Sakura's character? If not, would anyone be interested in writing one? I would write one, but I don't have a good memory in terms of remembering all of her great scenes and remembering what chapters certain scenes were from. If this is too big of a task, maybe the process of writing one will be made easier if we all chipped in our thoughts on this thread and someone can just compile it all together whether it's me or someone else who'd like to do it. I know there's already a thread discussing Sakura's character so I'm not sure if this is redundant or not, but I took a peek at it and...well, it's 20 pages of people debating some of her merits and her weaknesses as a character (and some arguments thrown in as well) and I'd kind of like to focus on what makes Sakura so awesome and why she's not anything a lot of her haters say...and on top of that, we can try to add references/support to our points by adding images/pages from the manga onto our posts in this thread.

T_T;; Sorry if this is redundant...but I've been trying to find a really good, organized, and up-to-date Sakura essay for hours on a bunch of sites and I've come up with nothing.

Also, I guess this can also apply to NaruSaku as well because the famous heronite NaruSaku manifesto, while great, is nearly seven years old and therefore, slightly out of date. Thanks, you guys! And to the mods, sorry if this is a stupid post. >_<

[Atheck]

I believe that this might be in accordance with what you're requesting. Personally I haven't read it yet but it does appear to be very thorough and informative. If only people from others forums, particularly those who resent Sakura or the NS relationship, could read it.

http://heronite.live....com/11107.html

Edited by Atheck, 27 April 2013 - 09:50 PM.

[applesandtea]

Oh wait, I remember reading this before! I think this was one of the essays that I came across and really enjoyed reading because it not only focused on NaruSaku, but on Sakura's character as well. Thank you so much!

[sushi.]

I know Chatte have some stuff. ^^ Just google Chatte Georgina on tumblr and you'll find it. ;P

[Chatte]

I know Chatte have some stuff. ^^ Just google Chatte Georgina on tumblr and you'll find it. ;P

Awee, thank you for the recommendation, sushi!
Heya, tehre! Welcome to H&E. I started this somewhere at the end of the year-beginning of the year. I still have a lot to work on, but you might enjoy it:

http://chatteart.dev...-hate-347581270

[applesandtea]

Hi, Chatte! Thanks for the welcome...I've actually been around for 8 years, but I haven't been super active. Yeah, I saw that and I can't wait to read through all of it. The only reason why I'm not sending it to my friend is because I knowwwww he's going to go all "Omg this is so long...I don't want to read it" haha. I also saw your collection of NaruSaku moments from the very beginning to the confession which was SO awesome to look at because it's so great to see how far they've come and how strong their relationship is. Their relationship, regardless of whether it's romantic or platonic, and that innate trust and affection for each other is one of the biggest reasons why I love this pairing so much and why I prefer it over other pairings that don't have as strong of a foundation...even though some of those can be fun to ship haha.

I'm going a bit off-topic here, but one of the things I liked the best out of your compilation of NaruSaku moments is that I always knew that Sakura stopped seeing Naruto as the obnoxious idiot very early on, but I didn't realize how early this happened! I kept on thinking it happened during the Wave country arc, but she pretty much started seeing Naruto in a different light and started caring for him VERY early on...as early as the third chapter when Sasuke rebukes her for her dismissive attitude towards Naruto and she realizes the way she feels must be the way that Naruto felt whenever she acted harshly towards him...which makes me not understand the people who say "OMG SHE HATES NARUTO AND IS SO MEAN TO HIM!!!!!" because seriously, she changes her mind about him in the THIRD chapter and from then on, while she found him annoying sometimes (a belief that wasn't entirely unfounded as he did act like a mischievous brat sometimes ;P), her view on him changed and she started caring for him VERY quickly/immediately after this encounter with Sasuke...because she worries for him while they try to pass the bell test!

Oh and I have no idea why my friend thinks calling her a Tsunade wannabe is a valid argument because while they're similar, they're also very distinctly different individuals...and in any case, if you want to say that they're similar, the same can be said for Naruto and Jiraiya and Sasuke and Orochimaru (although this latter comparison isn't as strong as the other two) because the similarities are supposed to be intentional. ALL three of them are supposed to resemble the Sannin in some way and ALL three of them are supposed to surpass them (although Kishi hasn't been showing this side of Sakura which bothers me like crazy).

Edited by applesandtea, 27 April 2013 - 11:22 PM.

[Atheck]

Awee, thank you for the recommendation, sushi!
Heya, tehre! Welcome to H&E. I started this somewhere at the end of the year-beginning of the year. I still have a lot to work on, but you might enjoy it:

http://chatteart.dev...-hate-347581270

If only people on other forums could be presented with that link.

[Chatte]

If only people on other forums could be presented with that link.

I plan on finishing it and hit NB with it, haha! But I still have a long way towards it...

@applesandtea oh, sorry if it's too long but in order to understand her character and meaning throughout the manga you have to read a lot of analyses not necessary as mine as I consider it to be not that good as I wanted it. I mainly get ideas at night before I sleep and I am so mad at myself that the next day I forget it or I just have other things to do and can't handle this atm.
As you see, I have 2 months since I left it dusty, sadly...
And she is not a Tsunade wannabe. All the other characters as her in this manga are build-up starting from Sakura. She is the prototype, the rest are a series of Sakuras, if you wanna say like this. A more evolved ones, if I may say like this.

Edited by Chatte, 28 April 2013 - 12:35 AM.

[Inferno180]

Wait is this an thread seriously about the theory of NaruSaku coming to being? I mean we get notice of something like this with NH from Baguatte about some guy who made a 6 page length argument about why NH would come true but it was easily debunked in one simple argument.

[Chatte]

Wait is this an thread seriously about the theory of NaruSaku coming to being? I mean we get notice of something like this with NH from Baguatte about some guy who made a 6 page length argument about why NH would come true but it was easily debunked in one simple argument.

Uh, what? This is basically a thread about Sakura as a character. What 6 page lenght thing are you talking about? ^^

[HauntedCake]

Yeah...... you could write 50 pages of solid evidence as to why Narusaku will become canon but NH shippers will just say:

"Kishi will asspull NH, and you know it"

[Chatte]

Yeah...... you could write 50 pages of solid evidence as to why Narusaku will become canon but NH shippers will just say:

"Kishi will asspull NH, and you know it"

Why do I care what the others have to say about this when the author's intention is clear to me?
Haters gonna hate. Potatoes gonna potate. As simple as that.

[Verilance]

Why do I care what the others have to say about this when the author's intention is clear to me?
Haters gonna hate. Potatoes gonna potate. As simple as that.

Chatte I think I love you that was the best post ever lol

[Inferno180]

Uh, what? This is basically a thread about Sakura as a character. What 6 page lenght thing are you talking about? ^^

Oh well a while back in the debate thread, baguatte told us about some NH fan he was debating with that had a 6 page long argument for NH, yet it was easily debunked. But since this is about Sakura as a character, she is good. No questions there.

I still see her as the heroine, she is. Now she has not had a role for a while but there is good reason for this, again, its due to the 4th world war arc. Sakura has played a role in the majority of the arcs, she has had a lasting role. Not always actionwise but still in some other ways (she was prominent in the pain arc for the healing and taking leadership for the medics in this case). She did have a recent heroine moment with the white Zetsu, that's a moment that incidentally started the reason for Naruto coming to the battlefield, to find the zetsu and help save others.

Anyways it was the 5 kage summit for onething, kishi introduced many characters, especially the other 3 kage aside from Tsunade and Gaara. He brought back so many other characters with edo tensei. These were things which were cause for shifting so much. Sakura was not alone for the main characters losing the spotlight for a bit, Naruto and Sasuke had to be stored away too for training and eye recovery. Naruto had some time in the confinement arc but that was for his development and meeting kushina. Sasuke's recent arc was kinda like a counterbalance to this, he had time to discover more for his own reasons, a short amount of time but still time focused on himself like Naruto trying to beat Kurama. Well Naruto trained offscreen as others fought, that was the idea. Especially last year, I would not say Sakura was the only one gone. Sakura, the K11, the remaining minor characters, all were sidelined for the 3 fights last year. The kage vs Madara fight was to give some screentime to the kage together for a massive battle, it was a major moment because though Ay, Mei, and Ohnoki were very minor characters, they were still lorewise very powerful, again because of the 5 kage summit arc, they needed time in this too. We knew Tsunade and Gaara for years. Ay, Mei, and Ohnoki needed development though, they got some over the course of this arc until they were steamrolled by Madara.

So yeah its not just Sakura who has been removed from the action, this past arc shifted over everyone even Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi. Our mains had a fair amount of screentime lost. Even years before this arc, there was an omake making fun of the fact that Naruto himself though being the main character was constantly offscreen for other story reasons, he is still the main but its funny how he had to be removed for a lot of other plot developments. People tend to act like this with Sakura, they don't see her and think she is not important, then Hinata comes in once in a blue moon, they say she is critically important.

In 2012 everyone was removed save those from the battles, Sakura has been fairly seen in the 4th war arc, heck just for the zetsu moment, she had a role. For now she is only fairly seen, but its still more than others, this is something people always tend to forget.